Captain Robert Gray, a Yankee trader, was born in Rhode Island
in 1755. In his early twenties he served in the navy during the
Revolutionary War, probably aboard a privateer. After the war he
continued his career at sea.

In 1787 he and Capt. John Kendrick were commissioned
by Boston merchants to sail up the Northwest coast to trade for furs
and exchange the furs for goods from China. These merchants procured
and made ready for sea a ship, the Columbia,
and a little sloop, the Lady Washington. The vessels were stocked
with trinkets to trade with the natives for furs. The voyage was to be
a long one, around the Horn to the Pacific and then on to China to
trade the cargo of furs for a cargo of tea and silk and then home to
Boston.

By 1789 the ships were anchored in Nootka Sound.
Capt. John Kendrick
was at the helm of the Columbia and Capt. Robert Gray was in charge
of the Lady Washington. Kendrick and Gray spent two seasons gathering
furs on the coast. While in the Pacific they exchanged ships. Kendrick
remained on the
coast to continue trade. Gray, in the meantime, took the furs to Canton
and returned to Boston with a cargo of tea. The furs had not
sold well but Gray was welcomed home. Capt. Gray had become the first
American to circumnavigate the globe.

The Columbia was overhauled and made ready for sea
again. On September 28, 1790 Gray sailed from Boston on another
expedition to
the Northwest coast. After wintering over, Gray's ship arrived at Clayoquot, the American trading post on Vancouver Island, on June 5,1791.

That summer the American adventurers did not fare
well. Gray sailed as far north as Portland channel where some of his
men were murdered
by hostile Indians. Meanwhile, Kendrick of the Lady Washington also
met with tragedy. The natives of Queen Charlotte Island attacked
Kendrick's ship and his men on shore. His son was among those slain.

The two ships returned to Clayoquot in September and
Kendrick set out
for China with furs. Gray erected a fort at Clayoquot and constructed
a little sloop, named the Adventure, which he put under the command of
Haswell, his second officer.

The Indians about Clayoquot were not friendly, and
during the winter
Gray and his men were obliged to keep constant guard to avoid an
attack.
On April 2, 1792 both vessels left Clayoquot, the Adventurer turned
north
for trade and the Columbia dropping southward. Perhaps Gray was only
bent on finding new trading fields, for sea otter were still plentiful
to the south of Vancouver Island. Yet his movements suggest that he
was exploring for the River of the West. He sailed south along the
coast to trade with the Indian tribes.

After reaching southern Oregon,
he turned around and sailed north, seeking a safe and sheltered
anchorage for his ship "the Columbia". He sighted what appeared to
be a river, but the heavy seas made it impossible for him to enter.

On April 29, 1792 Gray sighted a vessel and hove to
for an exchange
of greetings with Capt. George Vancouver, a British Naval officer
commanding the ship Discovery. Gray informed Vancouver that he had
recently lain for nine days off the
mouth of a large river where the reflux was so violent he dared not
attempt to enter. Despite the information given him by the American,
Vancouver believed
that he could not have passed any "safe navigable opening". Gray's news
impressed him but little. He noted in his journal: "If any river should
be found, it must be a very intricate one and inaccessible to vessels
of our burden." He pushed on northward. Gray continued on his way north, trading along
the way. At the same time he was looking for a safe harbor in which to
lay over. On May 7th his log book notes his discovery of what became
known as Gray's Harbor:

"Being within six miles of the land, saw an
entrance in the same, which had a very good appearance of a harbor...We
soon saw from our masthead a passage in between the sand-bars. At half
past
three, bore away, and ran in north-east by east, having from four to
eight fathoms, sandy bottom; and as we drew in nearer between the bars,
had from ten to thirteen fathoms, having a very strong tide of ebb to
stem....At five P.M. came to in five fathoms water, sandy bottom, in a
safe harbor, well sheltered from the sea by long sand-bars and spits.

After spending
a short time in the harbor, Gray decided to sail south to try again to enter
the mouth of the river he had sighted. This time luck was with him. Gray
ordered a pinnace, a light sailboat, launched. As the small sailboat located
a safe channel across the treacherous bar, the Columbia followed her into the
fresh waters of the great river. According to the ship's log, the entrance
was sighted on May 11, 1792, at 4 a.m. He describes the historic event this way:

"At eight a.m. being a little to windward
of the entrance of the
Harbor, bore away, and run in east-north-east between the breakers,
having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar,
we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered.
At one p.m. came to with the small bower, in ten fathoms, black and
white sand. The entrance between the bars bore west-south-west distant
ten miles; the north side of the river a half mile distant
from the ship; the south side of the same two and a half miles
distance; a village on the north side of the river west by north,
distant three-quarters of a mile. Vast numbers of natives came
alongside; people employed in pumping the salt water out of our
watercasks, in order to fill with fresh, while the ship floated in.
So ends."

Gray had found the great River and yet he described
it laconically in
one brief matter-of-fact paragraph and "So Ends!" It is almost as if
he considered the discovery of this river, which he named the Columbia after his ship,
unimportant. He named the cape to the south, Adams, and the
one to the north, Hancock (more commonly referred to as Cape
Disappointment).

Capt. Gray went on to sell his furs in China in 1793.
The results must
have not met expectations because he was not sent out again. Kendrick
of the Lady Washington was killed in Hawaii by a gun explosion. Gray's
discovery apparently impressed the public little more than it had
impressed Gray himself, for it was not followed up in any way for some
years. Neither recognition nor wealth befell him. He died in poverty
in 1806 at Charleston.